HANS Andersen yesterday cut into his Speedway European Championship qualifying bid – to celebrate the third birthday of his son.

The experienced Pirates charger is today due to compete in the SEC Challenge in Olching with a top-seven finish enough to progress to the four-round event proper.

Andersen has never raced at the German venue and elected to avoid practice in order to spend time with son August.

He told the Daily Echo: "My experience in the past is that practising the day before is useless because the track is never the same.

"I'm not practising, I'm spending the day with my son instead as it is his birthday."

Andersen, who is also due to ride in the Grand Prix qualifying semi-final at Gorican on Saturday, believes the SEC is on the rise.

He added: "I think the European Championship is good in many ways because you can qualify for the event and race in it the same year.

"In the past, riders have had a superb year and qualified for the GPs but then the following year, they have been pants.

"In the European Championship, if people are going well they get a chance the same year to win some silverware."

Olching line-up: Fredrik Lindgren, Tomas H. Jonasson, Joonas Kylmakorpi, Peter Ljung, Shamek Pawlicki, Krzysztof Kasprzak, Mateusz Szczepaniak, Tomasz J?drzejak, Leon Madsen, Michael Jepsen Jensen, Hans Andersen, Anders Thomsen, Nicolas Covatti, Artem Laguta, Eduard Krcmar, Martin Smolinski.